Skype has long established itself as the leading VOIP solution for the world. Many competitors have challenged that position mostly by undercutting Skype prices, however none seem to gain such popularity. For example, compete.com data shows that two of Skype competitors, Jajah (a Yahoo VOIP solution) and OovoO, have significantly less traffic (43K-55K monthly visitors in the last month) than Skype (1.8MM vistors in the last month). With this in mind, let’s take a vis-a-vis UI look at Skype and OovoO.

First look

Overall, Skype’s site is more professional and assumes users know what Skype is. It is visually consistent with branding (aquamarine + white and clouds) and uses whitespace effectively. On the home page they lead with a simple message about their rates (this is the main user issue with Skype) and below two of the leading solutions: (1) mobile and (2) pay as you go.  Another thing to notice is that Skype’s site defaults to a different homescreen depending on your cookies. This is a very deep site that makes a good job of organizing information in smaller bites as to not overwhelm the user.

Skype's homepage

Oovoo’s site is mostly dedicated to explain what the product is, as fewer people are familiar with it. Hence three quarters of the homepage explain what Oovoo is (including a video). The overall look-and-feel makes this site look amateur, in spite of using branding colors consistently. With this site I would say the devil is in the details; the structure is good, but there are many small things that contribute to a general feeling of unprofessionalism. For example, the logo’s reflection is cut off at the bottom; the typography is poorly spaced in the layout, and finally, the icons are inconsistent.

Oovoo's homepage

Comparative view based on  Jakob Nielsen 10 usability heuristics

Navigating the waters: Both sites are pretty consistent when it comes to letting users know where they are in the process. However, Skype accomplishes this while taking up less screen real-estate, and in a more efficient manner. Both sites are pretty easy to use, the navigation is accessible and they both use clear terminology.

Consistency - Consistency - Consistency: Though OovoO does offer comprehensive and easy-to-find help, it breaks the the frame by changing the width of the page to what seems to be an external help application. This is disorienting to the user. Skype’s help is much more contained and consistent (Jakob’s rule number 5) with the rest of the site experience. Another inconsistency in Oovoo is the account page. It is white! This disrupts the user experience severely and even though it has reassuring logos (recognition), it reinforces the unprofessional feeling of the site, because it looks like this portion of the site is run a by a third party application.

Another big issue I discovered was that Oovoo does not work on Mac (!), this should have been explicitly said earlier in the process and not at download. So the error prevention on Oovoo has room for improvement. UPDATE: Turns out that my browser was blocking the file. I tried it again and it downloaded successfully. This a Beta version for the Mac and according to Oovoo’s website it has everything but the video effects (and they say that clearlu. However, back to the visual display issues of this site. Here’s a quick markup of the download page. Bad spacing, misalignment and ackward use of icons. These are easy-to-fix issues for Oovvo that will make a big difference in their presentation.

Not too much, not too little: Oovoo does a good job of communicating the features and information in short copy, using lots of visuals including videos and photos of the product. However, Skype is able to convey much more information without making it feel cluttered. This makes Oovoo feel a little unreliable. I believe this is a matter of spacing more than actual information displayed.

Skype for iPhone

Skype To Go allows you to call a number from your cellphone to make calls. Though this can be added to your regular address book, is better to have an app that also allows you to recharge and access other key information. I’ve selected the key options that I would put on a mobile application.

Finally, on mobile it is even more important to maintain the two-click process present on Skype’s website. The data can be retrieved from the account information online, making it simple for users to recharge Skype credit. This is sample wireframe of a one step recharge screen:

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